News: Cedar Fair plans for 2022 include return of Cedar Point events, Frontier Town restaurant

Cedar Point is one of my lifelong happy places. Even on horrifically underperforming opening days, bad weather days, weird COVID days, etc., there are few other places that have the memories, fun and happiness that CP does for me. But god forbid they ever attempt Winterfest. It will be miserable!

mgou58 said:

Except Kings Island blows Cedar Point out of the water when it comes to family oriented attractions.

I don’t agree with that at all. And I always have preferred KI over CP (themed areas, grand entrance, re-rideable coasters etc)

I took a non-thrill riding friend to both parks. There was much more for her to do at CP.

KI has the railroad, Boo Blasters, the helicopters, carrousel, Eiffel Tower and Antique cars. That’s all.

CP has the railroad, skyway, Snake River Expedition, Cadillac cars, downs, 2 carrousels, Ferris wheel, plus the island experience. Not a lot more than KI but definitely more.

CP has more kiddie rides. They also had a MUCH better entertainment lineup in 2021. KI cut their entertainment ti next to nothing.

Is your friend a child under 48"?

In addition to the dark ride that CP cannot match, KI also has Flying Ace Aerial Chase, Race for Your Life Charlie Brown, Woodstock Express, etc., so it's a pretty wild misrepresentation to suggest KI's family lineup is so dismal.

Adventure Island and SRE are welcome additions to CP. But considering those came after the removal of CP's dark ride, Good Time Theatre, PWE, WWL, etc., in addition to the removal of Antique Cars, gutting Frontier Town of its only <48" ride, the trend at CP has been in the wrong direction as far as rides families can enjoy together is concerned.

I don't think I can be accused of being a preservationist or traditionalist but I am a little disappointed to hear that the ride is being removed. Not because of the ride experience itself, mind you, but because of the loss of the kinetic energy it brought to that portion of the park. I do think there was value in that though I can't quantify it.

Imagine the main midway without the Skyride. Again, not a ride experience to write home about (though good for the views and photo taking) but the midway would be missing some energy without it in my humble opinion.

Thinking about the Skyride for a minute...I wonder if a Skyliner type experience would be reasonable for the Cedar Point Causeway. Since they appear ready to make significant improvements to it...imagine if you could get CP employees and guests of Breakers Express and Castaway Bay to the park above the roadway instead of on it? Probably an investment of money without an obvious ROI. The jury was out for me on the WDW Skyliner...until I stayed at a property that I could take advantage of it.

Skyliner is fantastic. Mind you, it does require having a bus fleet on standby as a backup (since they don't run it with lightning in close proximity, despite the manufacturer saying it's OK). I'm not sure it's applicable to Cedar Point, but it's super cool.

Good point about the busses. I didn't think of that but I'm sure the CP version would be "down" quite a bit due to weather...and wind in particular.

I will say this about the Skyliner...it seems to have helped much more with traffic than I expected it to, particularly around the Epcot/Disney Studios area. I'd go so far as to say it increased the value of Pop Century pretty significantly. If they could connect Coronado to Epcot...and then run a second line from Coronado to Animal Kingdom..it would be a whole new world.

So, some of the busiest days I've ever experienced at 6 Flags Great America were the 2 Saturdays before Christmas in 2018. Guess which city has colder average temps, Gurnee or Sandusky? Gurnee, by a few degrees. They even ran 7 or 8 coasters then, as does Great Adventure. For the most part, weather is not the reason to not hold Winterfest. People are very into them. I think staffing would be the bigger issue.

By all accounts, the weather on the peninsula is not the same as weather in Sandusky.

The causeway would be the biggest problem, as far as weather is concerned. Kings Island was packed when I was there and there was a snowstorm with a 13 degree temperature. My hand froze whenever I took a picture of something, but, we still had a great time. People do know how to dress for the winter.

Doesn’t change the fact the most buildings at CP have to be winterized because they don’t have heat. People may know how to dress for cold weather but the toilets don’t know how to not freeze.

If 14 years after the Magnum trains bumped Cedar Point still closes coasters for a 30 second mist of rain, no way would they run coasters in winter weather the way Six Flags does.

Traveling over the Causeway in squally weather is very dangerous. When I worked at the park we had some days when the mainland wasn't too bad and schools were not cancelled but the park employees were told to stay home.

Before I went to work there, on a couple of occasions, the weather got so bad during the day that they sent people home early...and in one case people ended up staying the night in the hotel or their offices.

I'm not saying weather is not a reason not to put in a Skyliner...but unless the reliability was extremely high it probably would not be worth the investment.

Great Adventure and Great America run their B&M's in hilariously cold temps. Nitro in the low 30s was ridiculous.

Meanwhile Cedar Fair won't even consider running coasters in temps considerably warmer weather than that.

Shane Denmark said:

Doesn’t change the fact the most buildings at CP have to be winterized because they don’t have heat.

Dick Kinzel and an unnamed young employee preparing for opening day, 1987.

The Breakers of the 90s was so at risk to the weather that I could walk down a hallway connecting a couple of the older sections of the hotel and find snow inside. It would blow through cracks in windows or doors that were not tightly sealed. I was loathe to go into the lobby or have to do any type of room inspections because it was just bitter cold inside.

I believe that they have made improvements with all of the renovations, of course, and now they even have a/c in the lobby during the summer time. (Man what we wouldn't have given for that,)

The summer before they started the renovation, maybe two, I was walking out of Breakers, from the lobby toward the parking lot. I pass someone on their way in. See them look around for a moment, and say "Have you seen the Shining?" Has to be one of, if not the best comments I have heard at Cedar Point.

coaster5 said

I don’t agree with that at all. And I always have preferred KI over CP (themed areas, grand entrance, re-rideable coasters etc)

I took a non-thrill riding friend to both parks. There was much more for her to do at CP.

KI has the railroad, Boo Blasters, the helicopters, carrousel, Eiffel Tower and Antique cars. That’s all.

CP has the railroad, skyway, Snake River Expedition, Cadillac cars, downs, 2 carrousels, Ferris wheel, plus the island experience. Not a lot more than KI but definitely more.

CP has more kiddie rides. They also had a MUCH better entertainment lineup in 2021. KI cut their entertainment ti next to nothing.

You and I must have gone to two completely different versions of Kings Island. They absolutely have more to do for the whole family than Cedar Point does, and even more now that the Antique Cars are gone. And, there’s far more that people can ride together with much more varying levels of aggressiveness. At Cedar Point it’s calm, mildly thrilling, super aggressive. There’s not much in between for families. And DJ hit the nail on the head, look at everything Cedar Point has removed in the past ten years and how much of that was replaced with family oriented attractions?

Kevinj said:

Shane Denmark said:

Doesn’t change the fact the most buildings at CP have to be winterized because they don’t have heat.

Dick Kinzel and an unnamed young employee preparing for opening day, 1987.

Tony Clark at the podium looking like Abe Lincoln. Tony had a full head of brown hair back in the day.....

I saw some pictures on a Facebook page of a contractor beginning work on the Causeway project. The photos show them installing materials into the water to create a barrier wall. This process is part of "wetlands mitigation". When creating new land by eliminating water or wetlands you must create a new "wetland". That is why you sometimes see random ponds on or near shopping plaza sites or on airport property.